Henry
Henry is the protagonist of the film. We never see Henry’s face or learn anything about him because Henry is supposed to be the audience. Hardcore Henry (2016) As a child, Henry is picked on by local street kids, who throw a wind-up robot toy at a wall, destroying it. His dad scares the kids off and approaches Henry, uttering the words “you little pussy” Henry wakes up in a lab in Moscow, with no memory of how he got there, with a scientist named Estelle attaching robotic limbs to him. Estelle tells Henry that she was his wife and puts a wedding ring onto his finger. Henry is then taken to a room which has a computer with different voice options on it, to give Henry his voice, but soon the lab is put on lockdown and warlord Akan arrives with his mercenaries by his side. Henry escapes the lab with Estelle and their escape pod crash lands. Akan’s mercenaries arrive and kidnap Estelle and beat up Henry, who ends up falling down to a car park below, where he meets a man called Jimmy. Henry is told by Jimmy that he’ll only live about 30 minutes, but before Jimmy can say any more, their car gets pulled over and Jimmy is shot. Henry escapes the car, but is pursued by more of Akan’s mercenaries. Henry arrives at a bus, where a homeless man who reveals himself to be Jimmy tells him to find a man named Slick Dimitry and take one of his cybernetic parts. Jimmy is killed again when a man with a flamethrower walks past and sets him on fire, which ends up spreading to the whole bus. Henry escapes again, now on a mission to find Slick Dimitry. On the way to Slick’s place, Henry steals some clothes from a group of men skinny dipping in a pond, and gives an Akan mercenary a lighter for his cigarette. He then sneaks into Slick’s apartment, where he finds him sitting at a table, and sees a warning from his wife about the army Akan is building. Slick then escapes, with Henry in pursuit. Slick ends up getting his head blown off. Henry steals a part from him, and heads to a brothel to meet Jimmy. At the brothel, Henry encounters a coked up Jimmy who is in no condition to be performing intricate operations. Another Jimmy arrives to perform the operation and replace Henry’s old part with the new one stolen from Slick Dimitry. The brothel is then attacked by Akan’s mercenaries. Henry encounters Akan, who sends him flying through a vent into a car park, which breaks Henry’s arm and kills Jimmy. Henry and a hippie Jimmy get information on the whereabouts of Akan from one of his mercenaries. Henry and Jimmy pursue Akan. Henry finds his wife, but Akan soon arrives and knocks Henry out, sending Henry flying out of the moving van. When he lands in the nearby forest, he hears his dad saying the words “you little pussy” again. Jimmy is also in the forest with him, as he regains consciousness, but a tank arrives and kills Jimmy, which Henry follows and kills the driver. He then finds a helicopter with Akan mercenaries and kills the mercenaries, before being sent flying into a field below. Henry gets a tip from Jimmy to meet him at his lab. He tries riding a horse to get there, but the horse runs away. Henry meets an army sniper Jimmy on the way into the lab, where Henry encounters and kills a policeman sexually harassing a woman. At the lab Henry learns the truth about Jimmy, that he was developing soldiers for Akan, but Akan wasn’t happy with the results and crippled Jimmy. Jimmy then used his resources to make clones of himself. Henry is accused of tipping Akan off to their location by beaming his video. Henry then fights off Jimmy’s clones, before he proves his innocence to Jimmy, who he accompanies to fight off Akan’s mercenaries and blow up the hotel and the lab. Henry and Jimmy steal one of Akan’s vans and head to Akan’s headquarters. Jimmy makes sure the coast is clear, and they enter. Henry fights off a flamethrower mercenary, and they make it to an elevator, where Jimmy reveals that Henry has a memory blocker, and then dies. Henry goes to find Akan. Henry learns that Akan is uploading memories into each one of his soldiers. Akan sends a soldier bigger than Henry to kill him, but Henry overpowers him and swaps parts, enhancing himself. He locks a door so Akan’s soldiers can’t follow, but they eventually break free, go to the roof, and surround Henry, who fights them off one by one until a small room blows up. Henry insects himself with adrenaline and finishes off Akan’s soldiers. Estelle then arrives, and Henry learns the truth: Estelle is Akan’s wife. Henry is kicked over, and we hear “you little pussy” again, but, we then hear that it’s what his dad was called as a child. His dad tells him “are you gonna lay there, swallowing up blood in your mouth, or are you gonna stand up and go spill theirs?”, which is exactly what Henry does. He stands up, wraps barbed wire around his hand, and uses it on Akan. Henry uses the barbed wire to hurt Akan, as a way to overpower him. Henry eventually grabs Akan, wraps his cybernetic eyestalk around his mouth, and rips his head in half, killing him. Henry catches up to Akan’s helicopter, where he finds Estelle. Estelle demands to know where Akan is, so Henry presents Akan’s head. Estelle shoots him, and demands to know why he did what he did. Using his blood, he writes the letters “EZ” and he gets shot again, but he ricochets the bullet and it hits Estelle, who almost falls out of the helicopter. Hang no in for her life, she tells Henry to listen to his heart. Instead he grabs the helicopter door and slams it on Estelle’s fingers, which sends her falling to her death. Trivia various stuntmen of different abilities played Henry, depending on what stunt the scene needed. Henry never speaks. We see Henry’s face once, briefly, near the end. In this scene Henry was played by the writer/director of the film Ilya Naishuller, who also plays Timothy, the character that gets killed by Akan at the start. One of the stuntmen that played Henry also played Slick Dimitry. Henry is given no backstory, presumably to make the audience feel like they are Henry. In one scene at the end of the second act, Henry is seen without his wedding ring. This was because there was a scene cut from the film in which Jimmy reveals the truth to Henry about his wife, and he throws the wedding ring away.